In the aviation field black box flight recorders assist investigators in determining the series of events leading up to, during and following incidents or accidents in which people may be killed or injured.
Many more people are killed or injured each year simply travelling in motor vehicles or on public transport. Not to mention the value of damaged and destroyed property.
To help determine the cause of, and therefore to find ways of avoiding, traffic accidents, Government authorities and Insurance companies are becoming increasingly interested in Event Data Recorders for use in motor vehicles to assist in event reconstruction.
Circuitlink International has developed an Event Data recorder (EDR) capable of recording High Resolution Data for accurate Event Reconstruction.
The Tacholink Black Box EDR continuously monitors and records a vehicles speed and other data including exceptions (when variable, pre-determined limits are exceeded) and up to 8 digital inputs. Vehicle speed can be polled as often as every second and all data is stored in virtually incorruptible Flash Memory Modules.
Vehicle Inputs that can be monitored include:
• School Lights
• Brake Activations
• Turn Signals
• Headlights
• Sirens
• Emergency Lights
• And so on…..
While these features make the Tacholink Black Box EDR an extremely competent Fleet Management tool, it is as an Event Data Recorder that the Tacholink Black Box EDR is perhaps without equal.
Critical applications include:
• School Buses
• Coaches
• Heavy Vehicles
• Flammable and Dangerous Goods Carriers
• Emergency Service Vehicles
• Mining and Construction Equipment
• And so on…..
What makes the Tacholink Black Box Event Data Recorder different?
The Tacholink Black Box EDR does not rely on an external trigger, such as air-bag deployment or sudden and extreme deceleration, to switch on an otherwise passive device. This is the case with some factory-fitted and aftermarket event data recorders.
As well as active standard recording, the Tacholink Black Box EDR continuously stores up to 40 seconds of data in a High Resolution Buffer. Data is recorded at up to 40 times per second and stored in a temporary memory.
The Tacholink Black Box EDR can be configured with 2 Accelerometer devices allowing it to detect and record G forces in 3 axes, front/rear – left/right – up/down.
The High Resolution Buffer is permanently stored if one of the following occurs:
• One of the Accelerometers detects a G force greater than a preset threshold
• A decrease in vehicle speed is detected which is greater than a preset threshold
• A vehicle driver presses the manual Trigger Button
There are trigger thresholds for each axis and also for when the vehicle is moving or stationary. As soon as a threshold is exceeded the Tacholink Black Box EDR is triggered and the High Resolution Data Buffer is stored permanently in Flash Memory.
The period of data stored before and after the event is variable and can be configured depending on whether the vehicle was moving or stationary, and also on which trigger was activated.
Other event data recorders that begin recording AFTER an event has started miss the most valuable information needed for accident reconstruction.
The Tacholink Black Box EDR already has the crucial PRE-Event data stored. The trigger merely causes the High Resolution Event Data to be stored in a permanent, safe, accessible memory.
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